TCU's Patterson on Baylor's Briles: 'He's picking on the wrong guy'
On Saturday, TCU gave the No. 9 team in the country all it could handle on the football field, but came up just short in a 41-38 loss to the Baylor Bears.
But while things were heated on the field, it was TCU head coach Gary Patterson who took the fury to the postgame press conference.
Patterson had an issue with a third-quarter play in which Baylor safety Ahmad Dixon was ejected for targeting TCU receiver Trevone Boykin, who was injured on the play.
But the officials did not make Dixon leave the field. Television cameras caught Dixon laughing on the sideline with a towel over his head. Patterson pointed this out to officials after being notified by his coaching staff, which was watching the broadcast in the booth.
Baylor coach Art Briles then took exception with Patterson and walked on the field towards the TCU head coach. As officials finally made Dixon leave the field, he was blowing kisses to TCU fans in the stands.
"No. 6 [Dixon] beats a guy up at the beginning of the season and doesn't get suspended," Patterson said after the game. "He takes a shot and I want him kicked out. The head coach came across the field to me. I've got a guy who's laughing into the camera on the sideline. I've got a guy (Trevone Boykin) that can't come into the game for a play. That's not what I call class.
"So the bottom line to it is, we're not going to do that. Gary Patterson lives in Fort Worth; if he (Briles) has a problem with me, he can come to where I live. I have respect for him and I have respect for his program, but that's not what I'm going to teach my guys, and that guy has been doing that for four years.
"The bottom line to it is, it wasn't funny. Trevone Boykin came back and jumped offsides, we shouldn't of even had him in for that one play. It wasn't funny. To come across the field at me, uh-huh."
Patterson never mentioned Briles or Dixon by name, referring to them only as "that coach who came across the field" and "No. 6." Patterson even admitted that he didn't want to take the high road when it came to the matter.
"I didn't build this program backing down to anybody and I'm not going to do it to him," Patterson continued. "Not in anything we do, not in recruiting, not in anything. You've got to understand he's picking on the wrong guy. At midfield [after the game], he said 'Leave it on the field.' I have. They didn't correct the problem a long time ago. He can say what he wants to. I have a lot of respect for the program and for him. But you're not going to come across the field to me and it's not going to be 'OK' to let a guy stand on the sideline and laugh in front of the TV camera when he tries to take a shot at somebody and hurt him.
"[Briles] can go correct his player because nobody said anything to him. I watched. I had to get the official to go get him because they let him stand on the sideline. If I didn't say anything, they would have let him stand there the whole time. That isn't cool. If that's what class is, I don't want to be it."
